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Friday briefing: Twitter suspends profile verification system

Twitter has paused new profile verifications after controversially granting verified status to a white supremacist organiser, conservationists have called off the last attempt to save the vaquita porpoise

Your WIRED daily briefing. Today, Twitter has paused new profile verifications after controversially granting verified status to a white supremacist organiser, a study has shown that media coverage dramatically affects the public conversation, conservationists have called off the last attempt to save the vaquita porpoise and more.

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Twitter has suspended adding new verified profiles – marked by a blue tick – on the site following controversy surrounding the verification of a US white supremacist organiser (TechCrunch). While Twitter's position was that verification does not amount to endorsement, it's been pointed out that verified users get a privileged position on the social network, and CEO Jack Dorsey said: "we realized some time ago the system is broken and needs to be reconsidered." Twitter's Ed Ho is asking users whether they feel that the blue check is too visible an approach to verifying the identities of specific individuals.

A US study has revealed that the publication of news stories on specific subjects has a dramatic impact on public awareness of and conversation about those issues (Science). A group of political scientists worked with 48 mostly-small media outlets across the USA, asking them to write stories about specific policy areas such as climate, immigration and technology. The researchers found that Twitter conversations on the subjects increased by almost 63 per cent on the week when the stories were run, compared to a control week, indicating the huge impact even comparatively small publications can have on the awareness and discussion of issues.

The last attempt to save the critically endangered vaquita porpoise in the Gulf of California has been called off following the tragic death of one of the animals (Science). The VaquitaCPR project, funded by the Mexican government and a coalition of marine conservation groups, was using military-trained dolphins to herd the vaquitas into a holding pen, but the confined area proved too stressful for the sensitive animals, leading to the death of one female and the release of a previously-captured calf. Only 15 vaquitas are thought to remain, and the project team will devote the rest of its time to photographing these last examples of the species.

Google finally has its own file and storage manager for Android, named Files Go (TechCrunch). The quiet Twitter announcement came from Google product manager Caesar Sengupta, following leaks revealing the app earlier this week. However, unlike most of its rivals, Files Go currently doesn't let you browse your full file system, instead only allowing you to examine the contents of a few folders, such as Documents and Downloads, clear space according to its suggestions and share files offline with other Files Go users in the immediate vicinity.

About 90 per cent of everything we buy will at some point travel on vast container ships, and all of these behemoths burn fossil fuel, contributing significantly to the warming atmosphere and shifting climate patterns (WIRED). Many cargo ships still use "bunker fuel"—the sludgy dregs of the petroleum refining process. The noxious blend is dirt-cheap, making it possible to charge next to nothing to ship goods internationally. All of which means our unbridled consumerism hitches a ride on some of the dirtiest vehicles on earth.

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A new paper reveals that, six million years ago in China, a giant otter could have been the local apex predator (BBC News). Siamogale melilutra was the size of a wolf, weighed in at 50kg and had jaws as powerful as a modern bear, indicating that it could have eaten a wide range of prey. Lead researcher Dr Jack Tseng said: "the fossil otter had a jaw that was six times as strong as expected, based on what we see in living species."

Ross Atkin solves problems for disabled people (WIRED). "We often make a trade off between the needs of different people. Often, different disabled people have different needs in that respect," he says. Transport For London is currently trialling Atkin's pedestrian crossing system – activated by a BlueTooth tag – in London. They are evaluating whether the extra time requests are being triggered when people are actually crossing - not nearby or passing on a bus. "Traffic engineers spend their whole careers clawing back precious seconds and there are not going to give them away just willy-nilly, so we have to convince them that it actually works really reliably," Atkin says.

Disney CEO Bob Iger has revealed that a new Star Wars movie trilogy and live-action TV series are in the works (Ars Technica). The films are to be developed and overseen by The Last Jedi screenwriter and director Rian Johnson and, according to a Lucasfilm statement to Entertainment Weekly, the films will be "separate from the episodic Skywalker saga... Johnson will introduce new characters from a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored." Even fewer details are available about the TV series, but it will be among a number of franchises that will appear exclusively on Disney's forthcoming US streaming TV service.

To mark the launch of the long-awaited third instalment in in Benoît Sokal's Syberia point-and-click adventure series, GOG.com is giving away the first game for free until 18:00 tomorrow, November 11. The game follows the adventures of New York lawyer Kate Walker who becomes drawn into an otherworldly mystery in Russia's frozen north. Meanwhile, on Steam, Codename Entertainment would like you spend a lot of money on DLC character packs for its free-to-play official Dungeons & Dragons idle clicker game, Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms so it's currently giving away a free DLC starter pack, if dangerously addictive semi-automated monster-bashing management and debatable licence use are your thing.

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The final trailer has been released for director Guillermo del Toro's forthcoming romantic Cold War sci-fi thriller, The Shape of Water (The Verge). The trailer reveals the military and espionage tensions at play in the film, which revolves around a mute woman who tries to rescue a strange aquatic humanoid from the government facility where she works as a cleaner. The Shape of Water comes to cinemas on December 8.

The Uberification of the NHS is already happening — though whether gig economy jobs and platforms are the right route depends on how well startups and tech companies are willing to work within the NHS' huge and confusing systems and obey its tight regulations. Disruption doesn't work in healthcare.

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Stephen Hawking and the world's leading scientists on climate change, rogue AI, post-truth and Donald Trump. This month, in our 100th issue, we ask the world's sharpest minds how we tackle the greatest challenges humanity currently faces. We also meet the elite team training the world's firefighters for the next catastrophe. And visit Romain Pizzi, one of the most innovative wildlife surgeons in the world. Out in print and digital. Subscribe now and save.